Please
share a little about yourself, your genres, any other pen names you use.
I don’t have any pen names, but my buddies know me as Barbara of the Balloons.
Why? Because Mylar balloons are my trademark. I work full time as a respiratory
therapist and have been writing horror and science fiction off and on for about
20 years. Sometimes the experiences on my job find their way to the printed page.
I also edit a bi-annual magazine Night to
Dawn, which comes out with dark fantasy and horror short stories, poetry,
and illustrations.
Tell us a little about your latest
or upcoming release.
Infinite Sight is a science
fiction tale featuring a caregiver devastated by an error which caused an
infant’s death. Because of a visual impairment, she struggles to read fine
print. After emergency surgery, she discovers she has mental telepathic powers.
When an extraterrestrial ship crash-lands near her home, she investigates and
happens upon a survivor who needs her help. Motivated by guilt-ridden feelings
over the baby, she rescues him, catapulting herself into a war between two
alien armies.
Have
you ever based your book or characters on actual events or people from your own
life?
Sometimes, and I also base it on actual
circumstances, too. I did this with Infinite
Sight and Steel Rose. Lilly of
Infinite Sight was based on a former coworker who, despite her best efforts,
had a hard time mastering the use of the ventilators required on our job,
particularly in the neonatal care units. Sometimes after a particularly bad
day, I’d catch her crying her eyes out. Writing Lilly was easy, but then I took
artistic license with the circumstances, and brought her into a meeting with
the alien. In Steel Rose, protag Alexis was based on me before I had surgeries
on my wrists for severe arthritis. Again, I took artistic license with her
circumstances. Often, I will feature a character who’s a combination of two or
more people I’ve met.
When
you’re not writing what do you do? Do you have any hobbies or guilty pleasures?
When I’m not writing, I’m working at my day job, editing material for Night to
Dawn, or visiting my husband Mike. He’s in a nursing home due to severe
Parkinson’s. Other times I might chase Mylar balloons when I do my grocery
shopping. Okay, I’ll ‘fess up. The balloons chase me, and thought I might set
out to get bread and milk, somehow the balloons land in my shopping cart, and
either the milk or bread get left behind. I love collecting Mylar balloons, and
I have about eighty of them.
Is
there a genre(s) that you’d like to write that you haven’t tackled yet?
I’d
definitely want to try some humor. Lots of folks feel I should try writing a
book based on my balloon collections (and make the balloons characters). That
would be an interesting project. J
What
is next for you? Do you have any scheduled upcoming releases or works in
progress?
I do …. When
Blood Reigns, the sequel of Steel
Rose. Here, protag Alexis and her team go out and kick some serious zombie
butt and goes after alien renegade soldiers.
What
book are you reading now?
I just finished reading Sealing the Dark Portal by Margaret L.
Carter, a paranormal romance with elements of adventure and science fiction.
The protag Rina learns that nothing she thinks she knows about her past is
true. She thinks she’s an ordinary librarian whose family died in a car wreck.
Yet she has nightmares about her parents dying in an earthquake in a city
overrun by monsters. Why? I had to keep
turning the pages to find out.
What
is in your to read pile?
I have several books on Kindle that I bought
as a “reward” for good promo or finishing a project. Charles Gramlich’s The Machineries of Mars; The Secret Life of Mr. X by MrsXNoMore; Desperate, Disturbed, Deranged and
Double-Lattéd by Kelly Jamison; and last, but not lease, a hardback version
of Stephen King’s Bazaar of Bad Dreams.
Infinite Sight
Barbara Custer
Genre: Science Fiction
Publisher: Night to Dawn Magazine & Books LLC
Date of Publication: 11/30/2015 (tentative)
ISBN: 978-1-937769-42-0 (print)
ASIN:
Number of pages: 112 pages
Word Count: 25,225
Cover Artist: Marge Simon
Book Description:
Devastated by an error which caused an infant’s death, Lilly becomes deathly ill and collapses from loss of blood. She wakes up from emergency surgery with mental telepathic powers.
When an extraterrestrial ship crash-lands near her home, she investigates and happens upon a survivor who needs her help. Motivated by guilt-ridden feelings over the baby, she rescues him, catapulting herself into a war between two alien armies.
Excerpt
1:
In the woods,
she coughed her way through a maze of twisted oaks. She hacked and gagged on
the stink of sulfur; the smell was worse around the ship, which lay between
shattered aisles of trees it had destroyed in its descent. Flames flickered
from its open hatchway. The ship itself lay canted to one side with air bubbles
bursting all around it. On its left side, pieces of metal scattered in the
grass. Shining her light on the ship, Lilly happened upon warped metal strips
protruding over one side. Underneath the ship, glowing embers leaped and
twirled in a blue fiery dance. Face dripping with sweat, she shot glances right
and left. Where are the firemen? The police? My neighbors? Enormous Christmas
ornaments like this don’t crash and burn every day. Surely either radar or
other scanner devices had detected this.
Leaves crunched
to her right, followed by a scraping of branches. Lilly charged into the brush,
panting gasps escaping her lips. Her flashlight played over the grass and
bushes, for without her light, she couldn’t see to navigate in the dark. Her
foot tapped against something—a shiny metal helmet rolled under a shrub. The
branches separated. Lilly looked in and screamed.
A gloved hand
reached for the helmet. The owner of that hand stepped from its hiding place,
put its helmet on, and stared at Lilly with glowing red eyes. Dressed in a lime
green spacesuit, it stood about her height. Its bald head, thin lips, and
masculine features made it look like a male human, but the pointed ears and
flattened nose with nostrils like tiny slits defined him as extraterrestrial.
His jagged teeth chattered. He trembled
like an electrified wire.
Lilly screamed
again. “Get out of here,” she shouted. “Go home!”
About the Author:
Barbara lives near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where she works full time as a respiratory therapist. When she’s not working with her patients, she’s enjoying a fright flick or working on horror and science fiction tales. Her short stories have appeared in numerous small press magazines. She’s published Night to Dawn magazine since 2004.
Other books by Barbara include City of Brotherly Death and Steel Rose, plus novellas Close Liaisons and Life Raft: Earth. She’s also coauthored Alien Worlds and Starship Invasions (both now out of print) with Tom Johnson. She anticipates release of When Blood Reigns, the sequel to Steel Rose. She enjoys bringing her medical background to the printed page, and then blending it with supernatural horror. She maintains a presence on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and The Writers Coffeehouse forum. Look for the photos with the Mylar balloons and you’ll find her.
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